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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a Republican, made his strongest indication yet he may throw his hat in the 2016 White House race. (Saul Loeb, AFP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. As he signals strong interest in a 2016 presidential campaign, Republican Jeb Bush on Monday encouraged college graduates to "shake things up" and embrace change during a commencement address at South Carolina's largest university.

The former Florida governor's appearance, weeks before a self-imposed deadline to decide his political future, marked his second visit in three months to the state that hosts the presidential primary season's first contest in the South. Bush avoided any direct political references in his 10-minute speech to the University of South Carolina's winter commencement, but his mere presence in the state fueled new speculation about his 2016 intentions.

"Do not settle for artificial limits on you or this nation," Bush told an estimated 2,750 college graduates and 14,000 friends and family gathered in South Carolina's capital city. "We can be greater than we are."

In a TV interview shown the day before, Bush dropped more hints that he's moving toward a presidential run.

Bush said he "would be a good president," disclosed that he was writing an e-book about his time as governor that would come out in the spring, and promised to release about 250,000 emails from his time in office.

The son of one president and brother of another, Bush has the power to transform the 2016 contest like no other Republican.

He can tap into his family's vast political network, and his campaign would attract strong support from the same donor pool that other establishment-minded Republicans New Jersey Chris Christie among them need to fuel their own prospective campaigns. A Bush candidacy also would impact Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who came up through Florida politics as a strong Bush supporter and has been considering his own presidential run.

Bush did not meet political operatives while in South Carolina, aides report, but news of his appearance buzzed through the state's political class.

"There's a lot of affection for the Bush family in South Carolina," said Warren Tompkins, a veteran South Carolina Republican operative who advised George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

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Republican Jeb Bush speaks in S.C. amid hints of presidential run

Businesses and industries too often seek to use the power of the state to eliminate or impair their competitors. Such protectionist proposals end up hurting consumers because they result in less choice, reduced convenience, and higher prices. A new protectionist effort is currently underway in Utah, a politically red state with a Republican governor and a state legislature completely controlled by the GOP.

The target of this latest ill-advised push is Zenefits, a San Francisco-based startup company launched in 2013. As TechCrunch describes it, Zenefits helps businesses by providing a cloud-based dashboard to HR departments designed to help small businesses manage hiring, termination and all the benefits and payroll details necessary in-between those events. Zenefits also connects companies with health insurance providers.

This cutting edge startup has experienced great success early on in large part because, as the aforementioned TechCrunch article points out, Zenefits makes it justthat much easierto manage the insurance piece once a business has authorized the company as its broker. And, as a result, more traditional insurance brokers are finding it difficult to compete with the companys business model.

Utahs traditional insurance brokerage community is none too pleased about having to compete with Zenefits. On November 20, Utah Insurance Commissioner Todd Kiser sent a letter to Zenefits, informing the company that it is violating Utah inducement and rebating laws because it offers its software for free. Kiser said the company should be assessed $5,000 for each violation and twice the profit generated per violation. Because of this, Zenefits would currently be on the hook for at $97,000 penalty.

Kiser told Zenefits that it could come into compliance with state law by raising prices and ceasing to advertise. Zenefits does not charge businesses for their software, but they generate a profit from commission paid by the insurance providers with which they connect their clients. Zenefits understandably does not wish to go along with Kisers orders. Its worth noting that Commissioner Kiser was an insurance broker for 25 years prior to being elected to the state legislature. Kisers dictate, at the expense of small businesses, will protect brick-and-mortar brokerages like the one he used to run. He even said, in his own words, the ease of using Zenefits is part of the reason why he went after them.

So in Utah, its apparently a bad thing for a new company to make it easier for employers to operate their business. Thats an odd approach and one that wont help the state market itself to companies looking to move to and create jobs in Utah. Its also at odds with Utah Gov. Gary Herberts stated commitment to foster and support tech innovation in the state. Other states have smartly welcomed Zenefits.

According to Mark J. Perry, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, its classic government-enforced protectionism that protects existing, incumbent high-cost industries from the competition of efficient, low-cost startup rivals. And its also, as Perry puts it, a classic case of regulatory capture, which is when a regulator eventually becomes dominated by the very industry it was supposed regulate.

Its a shame that Utah officials are targeting a company that is creating jobs and helping local small business. According Fortune Magazine, Zenefits has 2000 paying clients and 450 employees. The San Francisco-based company has signed a development deal with Arizona to add 1,300 jobs there in the next three years. After raising $66 million in a June funding round and being referred to as the hottest deal in Silicon Valley, the startup, valued at $500 million, and its job-creating capacity are poised for further expansion.

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Republican Crony Capitalism On Display Out West

For the second time in three years, the trucking industry has found a friend in Senator Susan Collins.

The Maine Republican got a rider attached to the spending bill approved over the weekend so truckers will no longer have to get two nights sleep in a row before starting a work week. Suspending year-old federal regulations means truckers will be allowed to work as many as 82 hours over eight days -- upending what safety advocates said was a key component of a 15-year effort to reduce deaths caused by drowsy long-haul drivers.

I am seriously concerned that this suspension will put lives at risk, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said last week in a letter to lawmakers urging them to drop the measure.

Collins convinced a bipartisan majority of the Senate Appropriations Committee to support the suspension in June, just days before a trucker who police said had not slept for more than 24 hours slammed his rig into a limousine carrying comedian Tracy Morgan on the New Jersey Turnpike. Morgan, a former star of NBCs Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, was badly hurt and fellow comedian James McNair was killed.

The bill that the measure was attached to didnt advance. Last week, defying a last-minute push by safety advocates and Foxx, the rider ended up in the $1.1 trillion spending plan Congress passed and sent to President Barack Obama on Dec. 13 to avert a government shutdown.

I care deeply about safety on our nations roads, and no one wants to see an accident caused by driver fatigue or by any other cause, Collins said in a statement last week. But, she said, the suspended rest rules presented some unintended and unanticipated consequences that require further study.

In 2011, Collins shepherded a measure also supported by the trucking industry that allows bigger trucks on Maines interstate highways for 20 years.

This years legislative victory followed an intense lobbying campaign by trucking groups, who argued the Transportation Department hadnt taken into account the consequences of its rules, like forcing more trucks onto the road during early morning rush hours because of stipulations that their weekly work breaks include at least two nights.

Small-business truckers applaud the House and Senate for rejecting scare tactics, said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of Grain Valley, Missouri-based Owner Operators Independent Drivers Association.

The Collins amendment suspends until Oct. 1, and orders a study of, rules the Transportation Department implemented last year. Under those rules, drivers, after working 70 hours over eight days, were required to rest for 34 hours before beginning another workweek. And that had to include two consecutive nights from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.

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Maine Senator Is Again Friend to Trucking as Rule Eased

The Executive Committee of the state Republican Party approved a resolution on Monday night censuring House Speaker Shawn Jasper for relying on Democrats to defeat Bill O'Brien.

The resolution called it a "breach of trust" for Jasper to combine with Democrats to oppose the Republican nominee. It cites Jasper's "personal ambition" and "personal antipathy toward the party's nominee."

The committee approved the resolution 17 to 9. Jennifer Horn, chairwoman of the Republican State Committee and presiding officer at the meeting, did not cast a ballot, as she abstained from the vote.

The meeting was closed to the media.

The censure cites five reasons:

Opposing the Republican caucus's nominee for speaker;

Placing his interests above the interests of the Republican Party and the will of the Republican caucus;

Showing disrespect toward the Republican voters, contributors, and activists whose commitment to Republican candidates made possible the election of Rep. Jasper and his Republican supporters in the House;

Combining with the Democratic caucus to create a governing majority in which Republicans make up less than 20 percent of the total despite having a 60 percent majority in the House;

Risking the long-term party unity and discipline that is essential to the mission, principles, objectives, traditions, and future success of the Republican Party

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GOP committee Censure Speaker for Dems' help in winning post

Tennessee has moved to the forefront of a new group of Republican-led states jockeying for hundreds of millions of dollars available under Obamacare for Medicaid expansions.

Governor Bill Haslam, a Republican, announced today that the state would expand its Medicaid program for the poor under a real Tennessee solution that the Obama administration supports in principle. Indiana, Utah, Wyoming and Alaska are also considering an expansion, at least 90 percent of which would be funded by the federal government.

All of the states cast their expansions as departures from the traditional Medicaid program, in which participants pay little or nothing toward their care and the government compensates most doctors and hospitals directly. Their modified programs would generally require individuals to bear more of the costs of their health care. Its a compromise that lets state Republicans work with the Obama administration even though their party rejects the health-care law.

We made the decision in Tennessee nearly two years ago not to expand traditional Medicaid, Haslam said in a statement. This plan leverages federal dollars to provide health care coverage to more Tennesseans, to give people a choice in their coverage and to address the cost of health care, better health outcomes and personal responsibility.

Under the plan, called Insure Tennessee, low-income adults would receive either a voucher to help pay premiums for insurance their employers provide or would be enrolled in the states Medicaid program, called TennCare, where they would be liable for unspecified out-of-pocket costs. They could pay their share of costs from accounts funded by the state in exchange for making healthy choices and utilizing the health care system appropriately, Haslams office said in a presentation.

The plan must be approved by the Tennessee legislature next year and by the Obama administration. Haslams office said he had secured verbal approval for the outline of the plan from the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, Sylvia Mathews Burwell.

The Obama administration is willing to work with any state interested in expanding Medicaid, and welcomes the news out of Tennessee, said Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an arm of Burwells department, in an e-mail. The department has had productive discussions with Governor Haslam, and we look forward to the state submitting its plan to give low-income Tennesseans new options for health coverage.

When Democrats wrote the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, they envisioned forcing every state to enact a Medicaid expansion by otherwise withholding all funding for the program. The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that approach was unconstitutional, rendering the Medicaid expansion voluntary for governors.

The expansion is aimed at providing Medicaid coverage to people earning near poverty-level wages. In many states, adults without children arent eligible for Medicaid no matter how little their incomes. In states that havent taken advantage of the Affordable Care Acts expansion, including Texas and Florida, most adults with income beneath the poverty level, about $11,670 for a single person, are ineligible for any government assistance purchasing health insurance.

Haslams office said his plan aims to fill this coverage gap created by the Affordable Care Act and the Supreme Courts decision. Tennessee would bring to 28 the number of states that have adopted the Medicaid expansion in some form, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a Menlo Park, California, nonprofit group that tracks decisions on the issue.

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Tennessee to Expand Medicaid as Republicans Adapt to Obamacare